Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Note: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/joyoflivingthe00suderich 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. THE JOY OF LIVING (_ES LEBE DAS LEBEN_) A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS BY HERMANN SUDERMANN TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY EDITH WHARTON CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::1906 _Copyright, 1902, by Charles Scribner's Sons_ Published, November, 1902 TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK _Translator's Note_ _The translation of dramatic dialogue is attended with special difficulties, and these are peculiarly marked in translating from German into English. The German sentence carries more ballast than English readers are accustomed to, and while in translating narrative one may, by means of subordinate clauses, follow the conformation of the original, it is hard to do so in rendering conversation, and virtually impossible when the conversation is meant to be spoken on the stage. To English and American spectators the long German speeches are a severe strain on the attention, and even in a translation intended only for the "closet" a too faithful adherence to German construction is not the best way of doing justice to the original._ _Herr Sudermann's dialogue is more concise than that of many other German dramatists; yet in translation his sentences and speeches need to be divided and recast: to preserve the spirit, the letter must be modified. This is true not only of the construction of his dialogue but also of his forms of expression. Wherever it has been possible, his analogies, his allusions, his "tours de phrase," have been scrupulously followed; but where they seemed to obscure his meaning to English readers some adaptation has been necessary. Apart from these trifling changes, the original has been closely followed; and such modifications as have been made were suggested solely by the wish to reproduce Herr Sudermann's meaning more closely than a literal translation would have allowed._ CHARACTERS